Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The 2014-2015 Ontario fiscal year ends tonight. The deficit was originally sort of predicted at $12.5 billion. What I mean by sort of is that the province makes a prediction for revenues and expenses and now tacks a couple of billion on to the expenses as a contingency fund. To be fair the feds have being doing that since the Chretien days so it isn't too weird.

However what it often allows the province to do is as the numbers firm up and the deficit is closer to their original prediction rather than the original prediction plus the extra couple of billion, is say the province beat their prediction. Which obviously really isn't the case.

Now the Sousaphone, minister of finance Charles Sousa has said that the deficit is more likely to be $10.9 billion as quoted in this Toronto Star article. So fantastic, they beat their watered down prediction. Makes for good news.

But hold on. Anyone can make a prediction they know they will likely beat. What about say, how the deficit for fiscal 2014-2015 compares to the previous year? That's not mentioned anywhere in the article. Thanks Robert Benzie, Queen's Park Bureau chief for the Star.

I'm going to a more careful search of what exactly the 2013-2014 number was, but this Studio 2 article mentions that it was only $10.5 billion:

"For the most recently concluded fiscal year, 2013-2014, the province got the deficit down to $10.5 billon, but it's projected to go back up to $12.5 billion this year." So it was commonly known that the deficit would probably increase, but nobody would mention in the articles about this year's deficit that it increased. Considering that the Liberal government is claiming that the deficit will be eliminated by the 2017-2018 budget, one would think the trend is important. What about the 2012-2013 number? That might be interesting too.When the more up to date numbers come out it will be interesting to see how the expenses and revenues differed from the previous fiscal year.

Surly Hamiltonian has been tracking all homicides in Hamilton, but I've been late on reporting Hamilton's second homicide of 2015. This CBC Hamilton article covers the main points. The victim is a female, 26 year old Renee Neganiwina. Her live in boyfriend Joseph Snelgrove (38), is now in jail.

It seems unclear what the cause of death was. There was a fire, but that may have covered up the murder. The murder likely took place at the site of the fire, a home at 561 Kenilworth Avenue North, near Dofasco. That is in ward four.

With March pretty much done, that's two murders in three months for 2015. That rate pretty much matches the 8 murders in all of 2014 in the city of Hamilton.

Here are some statistics and analysis of Ontario 2014 sunshine data (released in
March 2014) for Ontario colleges.

The total number of individuals on
these sunshine lists is 4638.

The total amount of salaries earned by
those on the lists is $525,054,499.48.

The average salary for a college
employee on the lists is $113,207.09.

The following statistics for each
college, show the number of employees, the average salary for someone on the
list and the total salaries for those on the list for the college. The link for
each college goes to detailed data for each college, including individual
sunshine list information, as well as the top ten, twenty five or fifty, for
salary for each institution.

Here is the 2014 sunshine list (salary disclosure) for Cambrian College (released March 28th, 2015). The total number of individuals on the list for this year is 131. The total salaries on the list is $15,083,262.20, with the average salary for someone on the list of $115,139.41. Last year's list is available

Here is the 2014 sunshine list (salary disclosure) for St. Lawrence College (released March 28th, 2015). The total number of individuals on the list for this year is 102. The total salaries on the list is $11,814,902.66, with the average salary for someone on the list of $115,832.38. Last year's list is available here.

Here is the 2014 sunshine list (salary disclosure) for St. Clair College (released March 28th, 2015). The total number of individuals on the list for this year is 156. The total salaries on the list is $17,164,869.01, with the average salary for someone on the list of $110,031.21. Last year's list is available here.

Here is the 2014 sunshine list (salary disclosure) for Sir Sandford Fleming College (released March 28th, 2015). The total number of individuals on the list for this year is 122. The total salaries on the list is $13,623,939.53, with the average salary for someone on the list of $111,671.64. Last year's list is available here.

Here is the 2014 sunshine list (salary disclosure) for Sheridan College Institute (released March 28th, 2015). The total number of individuals on the list for this year is 327. The total salaries on the list is $37,474,432.07, with the average salary for someone on the list of $114,600.71. Last year's list is available here.